Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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Have you received an email from "Mrs Lisa Brown" at the "BRITISH LOTTERY or The Lottery Company or UNITED KINGDOM LOTTERY (they can't seem to make up their minds!)" telling you that you won the a prize and to contact "Mr.Oliver Campbel"? It is a scam.
There are only two legal large lotteries in Britain, the National Lottery and the Monday Lottery, anyway, and they do NOT use email to notify winners. Below is a scam email actually received.
DO NOT reply to any emails you receive that claim you have won a lottery that you did not enter. They are frauds. You will lose your money. There is no "free lunch"; don't be foolish and believe a scam! We can not say it any more plainly: YOU WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL BY ANY LEGITIMATE LOTTERY THAT YOU WON A PRIZE. If you do receive such an email, it IS a fraud, do not reply to it! If you DID reply to one, see this page to find out what happens next!
Other resources:
Also
In the UK, call the hotline at 020 7211 8111 to check or report lottery scams.
There are many other signs that this is a fraud that we have highlighted in the email below, typically including one or more of these:
Email address ballot: There is no such thing as a "computer ballot system" or "computer email draw". No one, not even Microsoft has a database of email addresses of the type or magnitude they suggest.
Terrible spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar - Scammers apparently don't know how to use spell checkers. We assume they dropped out of school before that class. They use almost random CapItaLiZAtion and often can't even spell "February" or know that "22th" ought to be "22nd". Real lotteries proofread their emails and use people who can write above the 3rd grade level.
Using free email account: The scammer is writing to you from a FREE email account (Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite, AIM, Gmail, etc.). Don't you think a real organization would use its own email, its own domain and website?
Keep Confidential - Real lotteries THRIVE on publicity - they don't want you to keep anything secret - the publicity causes people to buy more tickets. there is NO risk of "double claiming" because they can validate where the ticket numbers were sold. The scammer want you to keep quiet because they don't want the police or ConsumerFraudreporting to hear about them!
Email notification: NO REAL LOTTERY SENDS AN EMAIL TO NOTIFY WINNERS. Period. Full-stop. End of story. There mere fact ALONE that you received an email saying you won a lottery is proof that it is a scam.
Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.
From: Mrs Lisa Brown < online_result012@bellsouth.net >
To: online_result012@bellsouth.net
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 4:12:19 PM
Subject: OFFICIAL PRIZE NOTIFICATION!!!UNITED KINGDOM LOTTERY
The Lottery Company
P.O Box 789
Harrogate HG1 2YR
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Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY369
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YOU HAVE WON 550,000 POUNDS STERLING
Our Dear Winner,
You have won the sum of 550,000 (Five HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS STERLING ) from BRITISH LOTTERY on our 2007 new year charity bonanza.
The winning ticket was selected from a Data Base of Internet Email Users, from which your Address came out as the winning coupon. We hereby urge you to claim the winning amount quickly as this is a monthly lottery. Failure to claim your win will result into the reversion of the fund to our following month.
You are therefore requested to contact immediately out Claims Department below quoting winning number:
WINNING NUMBER:05-08-10-18-20-46-{43}.
TICKET NUMBER: 56475600545 188
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you .This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program. Please be warned
Contact Person :
Mr.Oliver Campbel
Email: uk-lottery@contact-claimsagent.com
Tel phone: +44- 702-409-2619
+44- 704-571-0025
Congratulations once again.
Regards,
Mrs Lisa Brown,
Online coordinator for UK NATIONAL LOTTERY Sweepstakes International Program
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
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